That didn’t diminish the love between us, though. If anything, it was a million times harder to watch her drive away with tears in her eyes, knowing how abrasive I’d been with her all week. Regrets were a venomous thing that could really poison the mind.
“I don’t like this,” Grayson barked, his fists balled like he was barely stopping himself from hitting a wall. “We could have come up with another plan.”
“Do we even need a plan at all?” I asked, folding my arms to try and contain my own nervous energy. “He hasn’t triedanythingsince that shootout at the docks. Maybe he’s decided that he’s satisfied now that Giovanni is dead and the whole structure has changed.”
Angelo sighed, running a tired hand over his face as he brought up our GPS tracker on Billie. “He hasn’t tried anything because he recognized that I wasalsotrying to get rid of my father. Why expend your own resources when someone else is willing to do the job for you? Now that we’ve literally done all the dirty work, he thinks he can just eliminate Vee and I, then his mission to control this fucking town would be complete. And do you think he’d spare Billie if she were caught in the crossfire?” He arched a brow at me. “Need I remind you how close she came to being shot in Monaco? Or dying in the bomb at Big Noise? Or what would have happened if that baby belly had been real at the farmhouse? Thiscaring fatheract is just that. An act. He’s luring her in, just like we’re luring him in. The second he gets his hands on Bella, he’ll have a gun to her head and demands sent.”
He was right. We all knew he was right, Billie included. But that didn’t make this whole fucking thing any easier to swallow.
“Besides,” Angelo continued with a grimace. “In the process of replacing management in Ricci Corp, I’ve uncovered several Wilson-planted moles. And they had active orders to be ready for another a strike against us all soon. What this strike was, I’m not clear on. But whatever the plan is, I have no doubt he wouldn’t leaveanyloose ends to chase retribution. Bella included. We either act first, or we’re dead.”
I threw up my hands with frustration. “Well shit, withthoseoptions on the table… let’s just get this over and done so we can all go into therapy afterward. Fuck knows we all need it.”
Our plan to use Billie asbaitwas the part we were all sick with worry over. The rest of it I had confidence in, and I knew Angelo and Grayson agreed. Billie’s role was the sore point for us all and the source of all our anxiety. She needed to pretend she’d gone on the run, taking nothing but her phone and a car. She’d call Wilson, hysterical, and ask him to meet her while she wasalone.
“Let’s go,” Grayson said, already moving toward the garage. Our vehicle was packed up and ready; we just needed to drive out to the rendezvous point andwait.That would be the hardest part of all: having no clue whether Billie was okay until she arrived.
The three of us were silent as we drove out of Siena and into the wide expanse of barren land bordering Lake Michigan, where we had agreed to deal with Wilson once and for all. There were basically no places to hide an ambush, which would lull Wilson into a false sense of security when Billie lured him here.
We parked our SUV a solid mile away in an old cattle shelter, then loaded up our weapons and camouflage blankets before approaching on foot. Grayson checked his watch and gave us a reminder to get in our designated hiding places quickly. This plan had been mapped down to theminutewith the only variable being Wilson’s response time when Billie begged him to come toher, not the other way around.
Waiting, in our trenches covered by camo blankets, was fucking torture. Billie’s car arrived right on time, parking in the precise location we’d mapped out, but then she needed to feign a panic attack on a call to Wilson, telling him that she’d run out of gas and had no idea where she was.
Maybe Angelo was right, and Wilson truly wasn’t fooled by her act. But even if he knew she was setting him up, he wouldn’t resist the opportunity to take such a valuable bargaining chip—especially if he wasconfidentshe hadn’t driven to an ambush… hence the wide-open space with noobvioushiding places.
Come on…
It took all my self-control not to fidget, but Grayson had been crystal clear with us that we weren’t to move. He’d put himself in Wilson’s shoes and immediately dismissed the idea that Billie’s GPS location and acting skills would be enough. He said the first thinghewould do, in that position, would be to survey the area and check for things like other cars that might indicate an ambush. Whether it was done by satellite or drone or fucking binoculars, it’d be done.
Minutes ticked by, and my imagination ran wild with all the what-ifs of this plan, the worst of them being:What ifBillie got hurt?
Almost as if the universe knew I’d reached my breaking point, the sound of a car engine cut through the silence, and a potent combination of anticipation and dread nearly choked me.
He was here.
But had Wilson himself come? Or had he sent a lackey to pick Billie up and bring her to him? That was one of the variables Billie had insisted she could handle. She said she knew him well enough to pull the right threads. I trusted her to know what she was doing.
After what felt like forever, the approaching vehicle came to a stop and car doors slammed.
“Billie Jean?” Bruce Bellerose called out, instantly transporting my mind back to those years of friendship when he’d call her home for dinner while we were in my treehouse. Fuck, that wasn’t Bruce. Bruce was dead.Wilsonhad arrived.
Another car door slammed. “Daddy?” Billie’s voice cut through the night, full of pain and fear. “You came for me; I knew you would.” She sobbed, and my arms ached to hold her.
Boots crunched on the gravelly dirt. “Yes. Youdidknow just what to say, didn’t you?” The suspicion in his voice was undeniable. Angelo had been right. “Are you alone?”
Billie gasped. “Yes, of course I am; I told you that I—”
“I know what you told me, sweetheart, but I’m also no fool. Check her car.” It made sense that he hadn’t come alone, but I wondered how many men were with him. Grayson had been paranoid enough about remaining undetected that we didn’t even have radio comms.
More car doors opened and closed while they searched her vehicle for stowaways or some shit, then one of Wilson’s goons reported that it was clear. Not even a gun present.
Silence stretched after that, then my hearing barely picked up on a heavy sigh. “Billie, this was a foolish move, coming out here alone with no weapons. Do you know how many psychos there are in this area? How many opportunistic bastards would love to hurt you just to hurt Angelo?”
“Like you?” Billie replied, still somehow managing to keep her voice weak and sniffly.
Another pause, then a cold chuckle. “Yes, sweetheart. Like me. Take her; throw her in the trunk. I’ll get a message to Ricci that we have his girl.”
Billie shrieked, fighting back no doubt, and it took everything in me not to give away my position. Ihadto trust the plan. Sure enough, a moment later, the suppressed sound of gunfire popped through the otherwise quiet night, and bodies dropped.
